Monday, November 29, 2010

... 49-year-old entrepreneur [Erel Margalit’s] $830 million Jerusalem Venture Partners is the main investor in movie studio Animation Lab. Margalit says the country, with the world’s largest number of start-ups per capita, needs to build on its traditional high- tech industry to develop virtual offerings -- from films and online games to social media ...

Not everyone is convinced Margalit’s animation movie push will pay off. David Simon, former head of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s television studio in Los Angeles, said ... “There are many animation companies in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China and Korea, who have attempted and fallen short of their goals,” he said. “The computer graphics film business is overcrowded, with too many new players competing with each other, not only for a finite fickle audience, but also with DreamWorks and Pixar.” ...

TAG had a short-term contract for storyboard artists working on an Animation Lab project. It didn't last particularly long, but it was enjoyable while it was going ...

Economic Times, India is bullish on the sub-continent's animation growth:.

Boosted by higher demand, the fast-growing Indian animation and gaming industry is expected to be worth $ 2.5 billion (Rs 11,435 crore) in the next three years, says global consultancy Deloitte.

According to estimates, the Indian animation and gaming market was valued at around $ 750 million (Rs 3,430.5 crore) in 2009. ...

(Be interesting to see if the biz reaches the two billion level over the next thirty-six months.)

TV sitcom Community morphs into animation on December 9th.

Singer-actor Jesse McCartney talks about the Cartoon Network series Young Justice.

I had worked with the director before on some other projects, and he gave me a call. He’s like, “We’ve got this project. You’ve gotta come in and put your voice down to see what you sound like as Dick Grayson. You may be a little too old because it’s the young Justice League and your voice is kind of lower.” So I went in there and put a little bit more of a pre-pubescent voice on the track.

YJ, long in work at WB Animation, has now rolled out with positive results:

Young Justice made its debut on Friday night with an hour-long edition on the Cartoon Network. It was a clever concept that was pretty well executed: above-average animation; intriguingly different takes on a few familiar characters ...

Young Justice Animated Series premiered tonight on Cartoon Network and all I can say is WOW!, this is what I have been waiting for from DC. The episode titled “Independence Day” was a delightful blend of comedy and sarcasm. DC was above par on the animation here and never cut any corners. ...

... After a 10-year home-video moratorium, “Fantasia” returns this week in a magnificent Blu-ray edition, featuring a brilliance of color and clarity of sound that have probably not been recaptured since the film’s premiere at the Broadway Theater in New York City on Nov. 13, 1940. ...

Add On: Okay, so we break down and toss in Tangled-related, like a Glen Keane interview:

G.K.: I showed Ollie a scene of Tangled. I was pointing it out. I said “Ollie, look”, and it was a little scene of her holding a squirrel, that was in the movie at this point. I said “look, freckles!” We’ve never had freckles on a character before! “Look at the satin on her dress, we’ve never been able to do that, the light reflecting on it”.

Ollie said, “Well, Glen. What I was wondering is, what is she thinking about?”